A Haze of Alcohol and Confusion

The making of 'Roujin Z.'

A still from "Roujin Z" (1991)

Happy Thursday! In this issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter, we’re talking about Roujin Z, a cult anime film from 1991.

Roujin Z is hard to place. It was written by Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood: The Last Vampire). Satoshi Kon was a main member of the crew. The character designer was Hisashi Eguchi, a famous illustrator and manga artist. And the result is a story about a robotic hospital bed, the Z-001 unit, running amok in Japan.

The Z-001 is supposed to be the “solution” for Japan’s problem: old people. It becomes a monster with an old man stuck inside. His caregiver, a nursing student, races to save him. “After all, we have a solemn duty as nursing volunteers!” she says.

It’s a social satire. It’s a goofy, sometimes bawdy comedy. It’s a giant robot movie. It’s a parody of giant robot movies. And it was one of those early projects to hit America during the ‘90s anime explosion. Roger Ebert wrote this about it in 1996:

I cannot imagine this story being told in a conventional movie. Not only would the machine be impossibly expensive and complex to create with special effects, but the social criticism would be immediately blue-penciled by Hollywood executives. Health care for the aged may be big on Capitol Hill, but it doesn’t sell movie tickets. What’s interesting, as you watch Roujin Z, is how quickly the story itself becomes as interesting as the fact that the movie is animated. […] The dialogue is also intriguing. Dubbed into English, it ranges from standard comic book slang to the thoughtful, literate and controversial. Speech of this level would be dumbed down in a studio rewrite.

Ebert liked Roujin Z. We feel the same way. But how did this strange thing come to be?

Today, we’re telling that story in detail for the first time in English. Here we go!